Twelfth Century Renaissance How Francis and his Franciscan Brothers both Reacted and Benefited from its Development

Introduction Many areas of Western Europe, particularly Italy, Germany and England had greatly advanced in various areas by the beginning of 12th century AD. For instance, there were advances in social organization, technology, education and economic systems (Haskins 73). The need to acquire new knowledge and develop institutions of leaning was rapidly increasing, especially in religion, theology and nature.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Twelfth Century Renaissance: How Francis and his Franciscan Brothers both Reacted and Benefited from its Development specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Most people were eager to learn religion, natural science and law in a different way. In general, people were tired of traditions and wanted a change in social and cultural aspects. In addition, people were easily accepting and embracing new ideologies. For instance, Italian cities and city-states such as Florence and Rome were ch anging due to the presence of scholars in philosophy, law and religion (Haskins 88). Any person who was willing to instil some change in the social system was in a position to influence large numbers of people. In fact, great leaders during the 12 century were supported by a public opinion. The desire for change motivated leaders to inspire their societies in a significant way (Benson, Constable and Lanham 53). All these aspects and changes in leadership contributed to the 12th Century Renaissance. The emergence of great religious leaders at the time is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the renaissance (Moorman 28). However, the emergence of St Francis of Assisi was one of the main forces that opposed change in various regions. Francis and his followers (Franciscan Brothers) created a religious movement that greatly supported the way in which the church handled social, religious and cultural issues. They were advocating for spiritual life. In addition, they advocated for the ‘role and duty of poverty’. In turn, this stand appeared to support the doctrines of the Church. Arguably, Franciscans reacted negatively to the people’s quest for change in Catholic leadership. However, they later benefitted from the 12th century changes as they sought to free their movement from the church’s political and social influence. Economic and Social Features of the â€Å"Twelfth-Century Renaissance† Changes in various aspects of Christianity had the greatest impact in the contribution towards social, cultural political forms. Barbara Tuchman, a historian argues that Christianity was a key pivot in medieval life â€Å"†¦because it governed all aspects of life such as birth, marriage, sex and death†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Moorman 31).Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The historian says that Christianity controlled the law, medicine, science, a nd politics (Benson, Constable and Lanham 64). In addition, Tuchman argues that being a member of the church was a compulsory for every person (Moorman 51). Although the church was the dominant force that supported political and religious leaders, there were several efforts to change this system in the 12th century. For instance, the people were eager to see a church that was meant to care for them. Thus, church leaders such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux became important figures of change during the 12th century because they were entirely dependent on public desire to change (Moorman 114). One of the areas that people wanted change was personal devotion to a common person, which had been a common aspect of the Catholic Church. Apart from forced membership, the church also required the followers to regard the popes, monks and clerics as religious and righteous figures (Benson, Constable and Lanham 171). In fact, it appeared that these church leaders were â€Å"gods† in some way, which gave them political, social and cultural powers to control the society. Similarly, political aspects of life were under the control of the church. Any person with ideas on how to liberate the society from the church’s monopolistic control received an overwhelming support from the public. For instance, King Henry II of England obtained massive support and political strength because he was willing to do what the people wanted (Haskins 133). Apart from the religion, the concept of justice was in dire need for change. According Haskins (143), the Church controlled the concept of justice system because every aspect of the law was based on divine law. The world politics revolved around the church, which in turn controlled justice system. The public was willing to change these aspects. It was during the 12th century Renaissance that the people of Western Europe, especially Italy, made great efforts in an attempt to free the judicial system from the divine law. For instance, R oman law was increasingly studied and revived. Gratian, a monk, became an important figure of change after he gave a summary of the laws of the church in his â€Å"Decretium Graiani†.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Twelfth Century Renaissance: How Francis and his Franciscan Brothers both Reacted and Benefited from its Development specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Finally, the desire for knowledge was on the increase during the 12th century. Thousands of people from across the social classes sought to know more in science, religion and law. They wanted to learn these aspects free from the influence and control of the church. For instance, 12th century scholars joined Latin classes, attempted to analyze the Roman law and the Catholic doctrine. In addition, scholars attempted to learn and analyze Muslim faith and laws, Greek laws and other texts in order to compare them with Catholic laws. For example, Peter Abelard made significant influence in education and law because he developed ideologies that attracted people. How did the Franciscans react and benefit from the changes in the 12th century? Although the Franciscan brothers and their movement did not support the changes in the 12th century, they later benefitted from it in a manner that allowed them to spread their new ideologies, interact with the people and obtain support from both the public and the clerics (Senocak 192). At first, Francis of Assisi himself reacted negatively to the changes the people wanted to see in the church, its leadership and control of social and political aspects (Sharp 126). For instance, with his group of about 11 followers, Francis travelled widely in Western Europe, where he preached the need to maintain the church traditions against the people’s desire for change. For example, Francis preached in support of poverty among the Christians because he believed that Christians should devote their l ife (Senocak 136). He had a collection of scriptural passages from the bible and the church emphasizing on the duty of poverty. However, the Franciscan brothers did not provide a solution to problem created by superiority of clerics at the expense of the poor (Sharp 102). Due to the ideologies that supported the church, the clerics, the pope and the monks to an extent that they were given food, housing facilities and other things (Sharp 96) supported the Franciscan brothers. For instance, Pope Innocent III considered the â€Å"Three Orders† developed by the Franciscans as a good tool for spreading his influence in order to deal with the 12th century religious renaissance (Senocak 224). The pope thought that by supporting the Franciscans, he would persuade the people to maintain a status quo rather than calling for changes. In fact, the church considered the 12th century changes as a form of heresy.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Despite their support of the church and the status quo, the Franciscans later benefitted from the changes brought by the 12th century renaissance. For instance, the control of â€Å"the Order† became a problem to the Franciscans. At first, the Franciscans had received support from the church, which gave them certain political and religious powers in certain areas such as France and Germany (Senocak 216). However, several followers disagreed on the role and duty of poverty. There were disagreements on how Franciscans should live and lead the church. In addition, Elias, one of the most powerful Franciscan leaders, assumed the powers to govern a centralised government in Assisi. He sought to re-interpret the role of poverty (Sharp 56). He built several houses for the members. He was in constant disagreement with the Pope and Italian President Gregory IX. Eias was deposed and replaced by Alberta of Pisa (Sharp 29). Due to the influence of the Pope and the government in Franciscan leadership, it was clear that the Franciscans needed to advocate for change in church leadership in order to maintain their influence (Sharp 34). Members increasingly saw the need to change the church and reduce its control on the politics and their movement. Since the 12th century Renaissance had succeeded in reducing the influence of the church on social, political and economic aspects of the society, the Franciscans benefitted from these changes in their efforts to reduce the influence of the Pope and the church in their movement. Works Cited Benson, Robert, Giles Constable, and Carol Lanham. Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. Print Haskins, Charles. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. Print. Moorman, Humpidge. A History of the Franciscan Order: From Its Origins to the Year 1517. London: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2008. Print Senocak, Neslihan. The Poor and the Perf ect: The Rise of Learning in the Franciscan Order, 1209–1310. Cornell: Cornell University Press, 2012. Print Sharp, David. Franciscan Philosophy at Oxford in the Thirteenth Century. London: Oxford University Press, 2003. 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Positive Degree of Adjectives and Adverbs in English

Positive Degree of Adjectives and Adverbs in English In English  grammar, the positive degree is the basic, uncompared form of an adjective or adverb, as opposed to either the comparative or superlative. Also called the base form  or the absolute degree. The concept of positive degree in the English language is one of the simplest to grasp.    For example, in the phrase the big prize, the adjective big is in the positive degree (the form that appears in a dictionary). The comparative form of big is bigger; the superlative form is biggest. C. Edward Good notes that the raw adjectivein its positive statemerely describes the noun modified; it doesnt care about how this particular person or thing stacks up against other members of the same noun class (Whose Grammar Book Is This Anyway? 2002) Etymology From the Latin, to place Examples and Observations Yertle the turtle was king of the pond.A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat.The water was warm. There was plenty to eat.(Dr. Seuss,  Yertle the Turtle. Random House, 1958)There were three nice, fat little pigs.  The first was  small, the second was smaller, and the third was the smallest of all.(Howard Pyle, The Three Little Pigs and the Ogre. The Wonder Clock, 1988)It was a large heart with lots of hearts growing smaller inside, and piercing from the outside rim to the smallest heart was an arrow.(Maya Angelou,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 1969)Few  things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a  good  example.(Mark Twain,  Puddnhead Wilson, 1894)The tone of the trombone is allied in quality to that of the French horn. It also possesses a noble and  majestic sound, one that is even larger and rounder than the horns tone.(Aaron Copland,  What to Listen For in Music, 1939)Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been  sober, responsible, and  cautious, but because it has been  playful, rebellious, and  immature.(Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker. Random House, 1980) Marys parents  traveled far  to trade and to search for food.(Shannon Lowry, Natives of the Far North. Stackpole, 1994)The inspirational value of the space program is probably of far greater importance to education than any input of dollars.(Arthur C. Clarke,  Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible,1962) Three Degrees to Consider   Adjectives change form to show degree of comparison. There are  three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. . . .The  positive degree  describes one item or one group of items. The positive form is the form used in dictionary definitions. (A.C. Krizan et al., Business Communication, 8th ed. South-Western, Cengage, 2011)Adjectives change form or add more or most to show comparison. Almost all one-syllable adjectives- as well as many of two syllables- add er to their positive (noncomparative) form to show comparison with one thing; this form is called the comparative form. To show  comparison  with two or more things, these adjectives add est; this is called the superlative form. Some two-syllable adjectives and almost all adjectives with three or more syllables show comparison with one item by placing the word more before the adjective; they show comparison with two or more items by placing the word most before the adjective.(Peder Jones and Jay Farness, College Writing Skills, 5th ed. Collegiate Press, 2002) Pronunciation: POZ-i-tiv

An Analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Her first novel, The Edible Woman, was published in 1969 to wide acclaim. Atwood continued teaching as her literary career blossomed. She has lectured widely and has served as a writer-in–residence at colleges ranging from the University of Toronto to Macquarie University in Australia. Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in West Berlin and Alabama in the mid-1980s. The novel, published in 1986, quickly became a best-seller. The Handmaid’s Tale falls squarely within the twentieth-century tradition of anti-utopian, or â€Å"dystopian† novels, exemplified by classics like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. Novels in this genre present imagined worlds and societies that are not ideals, but instead are terrifying or restrictive. Atwood’s novel offers a strongly feminist vision of dystopia. She wrote it shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they perceived as the excesses of the â€Å"sexual revolution† of the 1960s and 1970s. The growing power of this â€Å"religious right† heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in previous decades would be reversed. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights. In the novel’s nightmare world of Gilead, a group of conservative religious extremists has taken power and turned the sexual revolution on its head. Feminists argued for liberation from traditional gender roles, but Gilead is a society founded on a â€Å"return to traditional values† and gender roles, and on the subjugation of women by men. What feminists considered the great triumphs of the 1970s—namely, widespread access to contraception, the legalization of abortion, and the increasing political influence of female voters—have all been undone. Women in Gilead are not only forbidden to vote, they are forbidden to read or write. Atwood’s novel also paints a picture of a world undone by pollution and infertility, reflecting 1980s fears about declining birthrates, the dangers of nuclear power, and -environmental degradation. Some of the novel’s concerns seem dated today, and its implicit condemnation of the political goals of America’s religious conservatives has been criticized as unfair and overly paranoid. Nonetheless, The Handmaid’s Tale remains one of the most powerful recent portrayals of a totalitarian society, and one of the few dystopian novels to examine in detail the intersection of politics and sexuality. The novel’s exploration of the controversial politics of reproduction seems likely to guarantee Atwood’s novel a readership well into the twenty-first century. Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson and their daughter, Jess. Her most recent novel, The Blind Assassin, won Great Britain’s Booker Prize for literature in 2000. Plot Overview Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples that have trouble conceiving. Offred serves the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, a former gospel singer and advocate for â€Å"traditional values. † Offred is not the narrator’s real name—Handmaid names consist of the word â€Å"of† followed by the name of the Handmaid’s Commander. Every month, when Offred is at the right point in her menstrual cycle, she must have impersonal, wordless sex with the Commander while Serena sits behind her, holding her hands. Offred’s freedom, like the freedom of all women, is completely restricted. She can leave the house only on shopping trips, the door to her room cannot be completely shut, and the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police force, watch her every public move. As Offred tells the story of her daily life, she frequently slips into flashbacks, from which the reader can reconstruct the events leading up to the beginning of the novel. In the old world, before Gilead, Offred had an affair with Luke, a married man. He divorced his wife and married Offred, and they had a child together. Offred’s mother was a single mother and feminist activist. Offred’s best friend, Moira, was fiercely independent. The architects of Gilead began their rise to power in an age of readily available pornography, prostitution, and violence against women—when pollution and chemical spills led to declining fertility rates. Using the military, they assassinated the president and members of Congress and launched a coup, claiming that they were taking power temporarily. They cracked down on women’s rights, forbidding women to hold property or jobs. Offred and Luke took their daughter and attempted to flee across the border into Canada, but they were caught and separated from one another, and Offred has seen neither her husband nor her daughter since. After her capture, Offred’s marriage was voided (because Luke had been divorced), and she was sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, called the Red Center by its inhabitants. At the center, women were indoctrinated into Gilead’s ideology in preparation for becoming Handmaids. Aunt Lydia supervised the women, giving speeches extolling Gilead’s beliefs that women should be subservient to men and solely concerned with bearing children. Aunt Lydia also argued that such a social order ultimately offers women more respect and safety than the old, pre-Gilead society offered them. Moira is brought to the Red Center, but she escapes, and Offred does not know what becomes of her. Once assigned to the Commander’s house, Offred’s life settles into a restrictive routine. She takes shopping trips with Ofglen, another Handmaid, and they visit the Wall outside what used to be Harvard University, where the bodies of rebels hang. She must visit the doctor frequently to be checked for disease and other complications, and she must endure the â€Å"Ceremony,† in which the Commander reads to the household from the Bible, then goes to the bedroom, where his Wife and Offred wait for him, and has sex with Offred. The first break from her routine occurs when she visits the doctor and he offers to have sex with her to get her pregnant, suggesting that her Commander is probably infertile. She refuses. The doctor makes her uneasy, but his proposition is too risky—she could be sent away if caught. After a Ceremony, the Commander sends his gardener and chauffeur, Nick, to ask Offred to come see him in his study the following night. She begins visiting him regularly. They play Scrabble (which is forbidden, since women are not allowed to read), and he lets her look at old magazines like Vogue. At the end of these secret meetings, he asks her to kiss him. During one of their shopping trips, Ofglen reveals to Offred that she is a member of â€Å"Mayday,† an underground organization dedicated to overthrowing Gilead. Meanwhile, Offred begins to find that the Ceremony feels different and less impersonal now that she knows the Commander. Their nighttime conversations begin to touch on the new order that the Commander and his fellow leaders have created in Gilead. When Offred admits how unhappy she is, the Commander remarks, â€Å"[Y]ou can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. † After some time has gone by without Offred becoming pregnant, Serena suggests that Offred have sex with Nick secretly and pass the child off as the Commander’s. Serena promises to bring Offred a picture of her daughter if she sleeps with Nick, and Offred realizes that Serena has always known the whereabouts of Offred’s daughter. The same night that Offred is to sleep with Nick, the Commander secretly takes her out to a club called Jezebel’s, where the Commanders mingle with prostitutes. Offred sees Moira working there. The two women meet in a bathroom, and Offred learns that Moira was captured just before she crossed the border. She chose life in Jezebel’s over being sent to the Colonies, where most political prisoners and dangerous people are sent. After that night at Jezebel’s, Offred says, she never sees Moira again. The Commander takes Offred upstairs after a few hours, and they have sex in what used to be a hotel room. She tries to feign passion. Soon after Offred returns from Jezebel’s, late at night, Serena arrives and tells Offred to go to Nick’s room. Offred and Nick have sex. Soon they begin to sleep together frequently, without anyone’s knowledge. Offred becomes caught up in the affair and ignores Ofglen’s requests that she gather information from the Commander for Mayday. One day, all the Handmaids take part in a group execution of a supposed rapist, supervised by Aunt Lydia. Ofglen strikes the first blow. Later, she tells Offred that the so-called rapist was a member of Mayday and that she hit him to put him out of his misery. Shortly thereafter, Offred goes out shopping, and a new Ofglen meets her. This new woman is not part of Mayday, and she tells Offred that the old Ofglen hanged herself when she saw the secret police coming for her. At home, Serena has found out about Offred’s trip to Jezebel’s, and she sends her to her room, promising punishment. Offred waits there, and she sees a black van from the Eyes approach. Then Nick comes in and tells her that the Eyes are really Mayday members who have come to save her. Offred leaves with them, over the Commander’s futile objections, on her way either to prison or to freedom—she does not know which. The novel closes with an epilogue from 2195, after Gilead has fallen, written in the form of a lecture given by Professor Pieixoto. He explains the formation and customs of Gilead in objective, analytical language. He discusses the significance of Offred’s story, which has turned up on cassette tapes in Bangor, Maine. He suggests that Nick arranged Offred’s escape but that her fate after that is unknown. She could have escaped to Canada or England, or she could have been recaptured. Character List Offred – The narrator and protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale. Offred belongs to the class of Handmaids, fertile women forced to bear children for elite, barren couples. Handmaids show which Commander owns them by adopting their Commanders’ names, such as Fred, and preceding them with â€Å"Of. Offred remembers her real name but never reveals it. She no longer has family or friends, though she has flashbacks to a time in which she had a daughter and a husband named Luke. The cruel physical and psychological burdens of her daily life in Gilead torment her and pervade her narrative. Read an in-depth analysis of Offred. The Commander – The Commander is the head o f the household where Offred works as a Handmaid. He initiates an unorthodox relationship with Offred, secretly playing Scrabble with her in his study at night. He often seems a decent, well-meaning man, and Offred sometimes finds that she likes him in spite of herself. He almost seems a victim of Gilead, making the best of a society he opposes. However, we learn from various clues and from the epilogue that the Commander was actually involved in designing and establishing Gilead. Read an in-depth analysis of The Commander. Serena Joy – The Commander’s Wife, Serena worked in pre-Gilead days as a gospel singer, then as an anti-feminist activist and crusader for â€Å"traditional values. In Gilead, she sits at the top of the female social ladder, yet she is desperately unhappy. Serena’s unhappiness shows that her restrictive, male-dominated society cannot bring happiness even to its most pampered and powerful women. Serena jealously guards her claims to status and behaves cruelly toward the Handmaids in her household. Read an in-depth analysis of Serena Joy. Moira – Offred’s best friend from college, Moira i s a lesbian and a staunch feminist; she embodies female resourcefulness and independence. Her defiant nature contrasts starkly with the behavior of the other women in the novel. Rather than passively accept her fate as a Handmaid, she makes several escape attempts and finally manages to get away from the Red Center. However, she is caught before she can get out of Gilead. Later, Offred encounters Moira working as a prostitute in a club for the Commanders. At the club, Moira seems resigned to her fate, which suggests that a totalitarian society can grind down and crush even the most resourceful and independent people. Read an in-depth analysis of Moira. Aunt Lydia – The Aunts are the class of women assigned to indoctrinate the Handmaids with the beliefs of the new society and make them accept their fates. Aunt Lydia works at the â€Å"Red Center,† the re? education center where Offred and other women go for instruction before becoming Handmaids. Although she appears only in Offred’s flashbacks, Aunt Lydia and her instructions haunt Offred in her daily life. Aunt Lydia’s slogans and maxims drum the ideology of the new society into heads of the women, until even those like Offred, women who do not truly believe in the ideology, hear Gilead’s words echoing in their heads. Nick – Nick is a Guardian, a low-level officer of Gilead assigned to the Commander’s home, where he works as a gardener and chauffeur. He and Offred have a sexual chemistry that they get to satisfy when Serena Joy orchestrates an encounter between them in an effort to get Offred pregnant. After sleeping together once, they begin a covert sexual affair. Nick is not just a Guardian; he may work either as a member of the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police, or as a member of the underground Mayday resistance, or both. At the end of the novel, Nick orchestrates Offred’s escape from the Commander’s home, but we do not know whether he puts her into the hands of the Eyes or the resistance. Ofglen – Another Handmaid who is Offred’s shopping partner and a member of the subversive â€Å"Mayday† underground. At the end of the novel, Ofglen is found out, and she hangs herself rather than face torture and reveal the names of her co-conspirators. Cora – Cora works as a servant in the Commander’s household. She belongs to the class of Marthas, infertile women who do not qualify for the high status of Wives and so work in domestic roles. Cora seems more content with her role than her fellow Martha, Rita. She hopes that Offred will be able to conceive, because then she will have a hand in raising a child. Janine – Offred knows Janine from their time at the Red Center. After Janine becomes a Handmaid, she takes the name Ofwarren. She has a baby, which makes her the envy of all the other Handmaids in the area, but the baby later turns out to be deformed—an â€Å"Unbaby†Ã¢â‚¬â€and there are rumors that her doctor fathered the child. Janine is a conformist, always ready to go along with what Gilead demands of her, and so she endears herself to the Aunts and to all authority figures. Offred holds Janine in contempt for taking the easy way out. Luke – In the days before Gilead, Luke had an affair with Offred while he was married to another woman, then got a divorce and became Offred’s husband. When Gilead comes to power, he attempts to escape to Canada with Offred and their daughter, but they are captured. He is separated from Offred, and the couple never see one another again. The kind of love they shared is prohibited in Gilead, and Offred’s memories of Luke contrast with the regimented, passionless state of male-female relations in the new society. Offred’s mother – Offred remembers her mother in flashbacks to her pre-Gilead world—she was a single parent and a feminist activist. One day during her education at the Red Center, Offred sees a video of her mother as a young woman, yelling and carrying a banner in an anti-rape march called Take Back the Night. She embodies everything the architects of Gilead want to stamp out. Aunt Elizabeth – Aunt Elizabeth is one of the Aunts at the Red Center. Moira attacks her and steals her Aunt’s uniform during her escape from the Red Center. Rita – A Martha, or domestic servant, in the Commander’s household. She seems less content with her lot than Cora, the other Martha working there. Professor Pieixoto – The guest speaker at the symposium that takes place in the epilogue to The Handmaid’s Tale. He and another academic, working at a university in the year 2195, transcribed Offred’s recorded narrative; his lecture details the historical significance of the story that we have just read. Analysis of Major Characters Offred Offred is the narrator and the protagonist of the novel, and we are told the entire story from her point of view, experiencing events and memories as vividly as she does. She tells the story as it happens, and shows us the travels of her mind through asides, flashbacks, and digressions. Offred is intelligent, perceptive, and kind. She possesses enough faults to make her human, but not so many that she becomes an unsympathetic figure. She also possesses a dark sense of humor—a graveyard wit that makes her descriptions of the bleak horrors of Gilead bearable, even enjoyable. Like most of the women in Gilead, she is an ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary situation. Offred is not a hero. Although she resists Gilead inwardly, once her attempt at escape fails, she submits outwardly. She is hardly a feminist champion; she had always felt uncomfortable with her mother’s activism, and her pre-Gilead relationship with Luke began when she became his mistress, meeting him in cheap hotels for sex. Although friends with Ofglen, a member of the resistance, she is never bold enough to join up herself. Indeed, after she begins her affair with Nick, she seems to lose sight of escape entirely and suddenly feels that life in Gilead is almost bearable. If she does finally escape, it is because of Nick, not because of anything she does -herself. Offred is a mostly passive character, good-hearted but complacent. Like her peers, she took for granted the freedoms feminism won and now pays the price. The Commander The Commander poses an ethical problem for Offred, and consequently for us. First, he is Offred’s Commander and the immediate agent of her oppression. As a founder of Gilead, he also bears responsibility for the entire totalitarian society. In person, he is far more sympathetic and friendly toward Offred than most other people, and Offred’s evenings with the Commander in his study offer her a small respite from the wasteland of her life. At times, his unhappiness and need for companionship make him seem as much a prisoner of Gilead’s strictures as anyone else. Offred finds herself feeling sympathy for this man. Ultimately, Offred and the reader recognize that if the Commander is a prisoner, the prison is one that he himself helped construct and that his prison is heaven compared to the prison he created for women. As the novel progresses, we come to realize that his visits with Offred are selfish rather than charitable. They satisfy his need for companionship, but he doesn’t seem to care that they put Offred at terrible risk, a fact of which he must be aware, given that the previous Handmaid hanged herself when her visits to the Commander were discovered. The Commander’s moral blindness, apparent in his attempts to explain the virtues of Gilead, are highlighted by his and Offred’s visit to Jezebel’s. The club, a place where the elite men of the society can engage in recreational extramarital sex, reveals the rank hypocrisy that runs through Gileadean society. Offred’s relationship with the Commander is best represented by a situation she remembers from a documentary on the Holocaust. In the film, the mistress of a brutal death camp guard defended the man she loved, claiming that he was not a monster. â€Å"How easy it is to invent a humanity,† Offred thinks. In other words, anyone can seem human, and even likable, given the right set of circumstances. But even if the Commander is likable and can be kind or considerate, his responsibility for the creation of Gilead and his callousness to the hell he created for women means that he, like the Nazi guard, is a monster. Serena Joy Though Serena had been an advocate for traditional values and the establishment of the Gileadean state, her bitterness at the outcome—being confined to the home and having to see her husband copulating with a Handmaid—suggests that spokeswomen for anti-feminist causes might not enjoy getting their way as much as they believe they would. Serena’s obvious unhappiness means that she teeters on the edge of inspiring our sympathy, but she forfeits that sympathy by taking out her frustration on Offred. She seems to possess no compassion for Offred. She can see the difficulty of her own life, but not that of another woman. The climactic moment in Serena’s interaction with Offred comes when she arranges for Offred to sleep with Nick. It seems that Serena makes these plans out of a desire to help Offred get pregnant, but Serena gets an equal reward from Offred’s pregnancy: she gets to raise the baby. Furthermore, Serena’s offer to show Offred a picture of her lost daughter if she sleeps with Nick reveals that Serena has always known of Offred’s daughter’s whereabouts. Not only has she cruelly concealed this knowledge, she is willing to exploit Offred’s loss of a child in order to get an infant of her own. Serena’s lack of sympathy makes her the perfect tool for Gilead’s social order, which relies on the willingness of women to oppress other women. She is a cruel, selfish woman, and Atwood implies that such women are the glue that binds Gilead. Moira Throughout the novel, Moira’s relationship with Offred epitomizes female friendship. Gilead claims to promote solidarity between women, but in fact it only produces suspicion, hostility, and petty tyranny. The kind of relationship that Moira and Offred maintain from college onward does not exist in Gilead. In Offred’s flashbacks, Moira also embodies female resistance to Gilead. She is a lesbian, which means that she rejects male-female sexual interactions, the only kind that Gilead values. More than that, she is the only character who stands up to authority directly by make two escape attempts, one successful, from the Red Center. The manner in which she escapes—taking off her clothes and putting on the uniform of an Aunt—symbolizes her rejection of Gilead’s attempt to define her identity. From then on, until Offred meets up with her again, Moira represents an alternative to the meek subservience and acceptance of one’s fate that most of the Handmaids adopt. When Offred runs into Moira, Moira has been recaptured and is working as a prostitute at Jezebel’s, servicing the Commanders. Her fighting spirit seems broken, and she has become resigned to her fate. After embodying resistance for most of the novel, Moira comes to exemplify the way a totalitarian state can crush even the most independent spirit. Themes, Motifs Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Women’s Bodies as Political Instruments Because Gilead was formed in response to the crisis caused by dramatically ecreased birthrates, the state’s entire structure, with its religious trappings and rigid political hierarchy, is built around a single goal: control of reproduction. The state tackles the problem head-on by assuming complete control of women’s bodies through their political subjugation. Women cannot vote, hold property or jobs, read, or do anything else that might allow them to become subv ersive or independent and thereby undermine their husbands or the state. Despite all of Gilead’s pro-women rhetoric, such subjugation creates a society in which women are treated as subhuman. They are reduced to their fertility, treated as nothing more than a set of ovaries and a womb. In one of the novel’s key scenes, Offred lies in the bath and reflects that, before Gilead, she considered her body an instrument of her desires; now, she is just a mound of flesh surrounding a womb that must be filled in order to make her useful. Gilead seeks to deprive women of their individuality in order to make them docile carriers of the next generation. Language as a Tool of Power Gilead creates an official vocabulary that ignores and warps reality in order to serve the needs of the new society’s elite. Having made it illegal for women to hold jobs, Gilead creates a system of titles. Whereas men are defined by their military rank, women are defined solely by their gender roles as Wives, Handmaids, or Marthas. Stripping them of permanent individual names strips them of their individuality, or tries to. Feminists and deformed babies are treated as subhuman, denoted by the terms â€Å"Unwomen† and â€Å"Unbabies. † Blacks and Jews are defined by biblical terms (â€Å"Children of Ham† and â€Å"Sons of Jacob,† respectively) that set them apart from the rest of society, making their persecution easier. There are prescribed greetings for personal encounters, and to fail to offer the correct greetings is to fall under suspicion of disloyalty. Specially created terms define the rituals of Gilead, such as â€Å"Prayvaganzas,† â€Å"Salvagings,† and â€Å"Particicutions. † Dystopian novels about the dangers of totalitarian society frequently explore the connection between a state’s repression of its subjects and its perversion of language (â€Å"Newspeak† in George Orwell’s 1984 is the most famous example), and The Handmaid’s Tale carries on this tradition. Gilead maintains its control over women’s bodies by maintaining control over names. The Causes of Complacency In a totalitarian state, Atwood suggests, people will endure oppression willingly as long as they receive some slight amount of power or freedom. Offred remembers her mother saying that it is â€Å"truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations. † Offred’s complacency after she begins her relationship with Nick shows the truth of this insight. Her situation restricts her horribly compared to the freedom her former life allowed, but her relationship with Nick allows her to reclaim the tiniest fragment of her former existence. The physical affection and companionship become compensation that make the restrictions almost bearable. Offred seems suddenly so content that she does not say yes when Ofglen asks her to gather information about the Commander. Women in general support Gilead’s existence by willingly participating in it, serving as agents of the totalitarian state. While a woman like Serena Joy has no power in the world of men, she exercises authority within her own household and seems to delight in her tyranny over Offred. She jealously guards what little power she has and wields it eagerly. In a similar way, the women known as Aunts, especially Aunt Lydia, act as willing agents of the Gileadean state. They indoctrinate other women into the ruling ideology, keep a close eye out for rebellion, and generally serve the same function for Gilead that the Jewish police did under Nazi rule. Atwood’s message is bleak. At the same time as she condemns Offred, Serena Joy, the Aunts, and even Moira for their complacency, she suggests that even if those women mustered strength and stopped complying, they would likely fail to make a difference. In Gilead the tiny rebellions of resistances do not necessarily matter. In the end, Offred escapes because of luck rather than resistance. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Rape and Sexual Violence Sexual violence, particularly against women, pervades The Handmaid’s Tale. The prevalence of rape and pornography in the pre-Gilead world justified to the founders their establishment of the new order. The Commander and the Aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead, that they are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. Certainly, the official penalty for rape is terrible: in one scene, the Handmaids tear apart with their bare hands a supposed rapist (actually a member of the resistance). Yet, while Gilead claims to suppress sexual violence, it actually institutionalizes it, as we see at Jezebel’s, the club that provides the Commanders with a ready stable of prostitutes to service the male elite. Most important, sexual violence is apparent in the central institution of the novel, the Ceremony, which compels Handmaids to have sex with their Commanders. Religious Terms Used for Political Purposes Gilead is a theocracy—a government in which there is no separation between state and religion—and its official vocabulary incorporates religious terminology and biblical references. Domestic servants are called â€Å"Marthas† in reference to a domestic character in the New Testament; the local police are â€Å"Guardians of the Faith†; soldiers are â€Å"Angels†; and the Commanders are officially â€Å"Commanders of the Faithful. All the stores have biblical names: Loaves and Fishes, All Flesh, Milk and Honey. Even the automobiles have biblical names like Behemoth, Whirlwind, and Chariot. Using religious terminology to describe people, ranks, and businesses whitewashes political skullduggery in pious language. It provides an ever-present reminder that the founders of Gilead insist they act on the authority of the Bible itself. Politics and religion sleep in the same bed in Gilead, where the slogan â€Å"God is a National Resource† predominates. Similarities between Reactionary and Feminist Ideologies Although The Handmaid’s Tale offers a specifically feminist critique of the reactionary attitudes toward women that hold sway in Gilead, Atwood occasionally draws similarities between the architects of Gilead and radical feminists such as Offred’s mother. Both groups claim to protect women from sexual violence, and both show themselves willing to restrict free speech in order to accomplish this goal. Offred recalls a scene in which her mother and other feminists burn porn magazines. Like the founders of Gilead, these feminists ban some expressions of sexuality. Gilead also uses the feminist rhetoric of female solidarity and â€Å"sisterhood† to its own advantage. These points of similarity imply the existence of a dark side of feminist rhetoric. Despite Atwood’s gentle criticism of the feminist left, her real target is the religious right. Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Cambridge, Massachusetts The center of Gilead’s power, where Offred lives, is never explicitly identified, but a number of clues mark it as the town of Cambridge. Cambridge, its neighboring city of Boston, and Massachusetts as a whole were centers for America’s first religious and intolerant society—the Puritan New England of the seventeenth century. Atwood reminds us of this history with the ancient Puritan church that Offred and Ofglen visit early in the novel, which Gilead has turned into a museum. The choice of Cambridge as a setting symbolizes the direct link between the Puritans and their spiritual heirs in Gilead. Both groups dealt harshly with religious, sexual, or political deviation. Harvard University Gilead has transformed Harvard’s buildings into a detention center run by the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police. Bodies of executed dissidents hang from the Wall that runs around the college, and Salvagings (mass executions) take place in Harvard Yard, on the steps of the library. Harvard becomes a symbol of the inverted world that Gilead has created: a place that was founded to pursue knowledge and truth becomes a seat of oppression, torture, and the denial of every principle for which a university is supposed to stand. The Handmaids’ Red Habits The red color of the costumes worn by the Handmaids symbolizes fertility, which is the caste’s primary function. Red suggests the blood of the menstrual cycle and of childbirth. At the same time, however, red is also a traditional marker of sexual sin, hearkening back to the scarlet letter worn by the adulterous Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale of Puritan ideology. While the Handmaids’ reproductive role supposedly finds its justification in the Bible, in some sense they commit adultery by having sex with their Commanders, who are married men. The wives, who often call the Handmaids sluts, feel the pain of this sanctioned adultery. The Handmaids’ red garments, then, also symbolize the ambiguous sinfulness of the Handmaids’ position in Gilead. A Palimpsest A palimpsest is a document on which old writing has been scratched out, often leaving traces, and new writing put in its place; it can also be a document consisting of many layers of writing simply piled one on top of another. Offred describes the Red Center as a palimpsest, but the word actually symbolizes all of Gilead. The old world has been erased and replaced, but only partially, by a new order. Remnants of the pre-Gilead days continue to infuse the new world. The Eyes The Eyes of God are Gilead’s secret police. Both their name and their insignia, a winged eye, symbolize the eternal watchfulness of God and the totalitarian state. In Gilead’s theocracy, the eye of God and of the state are assumed to be one and the same. Chapters 1–3 Summary: Chapter 1 The narrator, whose name we learn later is Offred, describes how she and other women slept on army cots in a gymnasium. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrol with electric cattle prods hanging from their leather belts, and the women, forbidden to speak aloud, whisper without attracting attention. Twice daily, the women walk in the former football field, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Armed guards called Angels patrol outside. While the women take their walks, the Angels stand outside the fence with their backs to the women. The women long for the Angels to turn and see them. They imagine that if the men looked at them or talked to them, they could use their bodies to make a deal. The narrator describes lying in bed at night, quietly exchanging names with the other women. Summary: Chapter 2 The scene changes, and the story shifts from the past to the present tense. Offred now lives in a room fitted out with curtains, a pillow, a framed picture, and a braided rug. There is no glass in the room, not even over the framed picture. The window does not open completely, and the windowpane is shatterproof. There is nothing in the room from which one could hang a rope, and the door does not lock or even shut completely. Looking around, Offred remembers how Aunt Lydia told her to consider her circumstances a privilege, not a prison. Handmaids, to which group the narrator belongs, dress entirely in red, except for the white wings framing their faces. Household servants, called â€Å"Marthas,† wear green uniforms. â€Å"Wives† wear blue uniforms. Offred often secretly listens to Rita and Cora, the Marthas who work in the house where she lives. Once, she hears Rita state that she would never debase herself as someone in Offred’s position must. Cora replies that Offred works for all the women, and that if she (Cora) were younger and had not gotten her tubes tied, she could have been in Offred’s situation. Offred wishes she could alk to them, but Marthas are not supposed to develop relationships with Handmaids. She wishes that she could share gossip like they do—gossip about how one Handmaid gave birth to a stillborn, how a Wife stabbed a Handmaid with a knitting needle out of jealousy, how someone poisoned her Commander with toilet cleaner. Offred dresses for a shopping trip. She c ollects from Rita the tokens that serve as currency. Each token bears an image of what it will purchase: twelve eggs, cheese, and a steak. Summary: Chapter 3 On her way out, Offred looks around for the Commander’s Wife but does not see her. The Commander’s Wife has a garden, and she knits constantly. All the Wives knit scarves â€Å"for the Angels at the front lines,† but the Commander’s Wife is a particularly skilled knitter. Offred wonders if the scarves actually get used, or if they just give the Wives something to do. She remembers arriving at the Commander’s house for the first time, after the two couples to which she was previously assigned â€Å"didn’t work out. † One of the Wives in an earlier posting secluded herself in the bedroom, purportedly drinking, and Offred hoped the new Commander’s Wife would be different. On the first day, her new mistress told her to stay out of her sight as much as possible, and to avoid making trouble. As she talked, the Wife smoked a cigarette, a black-market item. Handmaids, Offred notes, are forbidden coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol. Then the Wife reminded Offred that the Commander is her husband, permanently and forever. â€Å"It’s one of the things we fought for,† she said, looking away. Suddenly, Offred recognized her mistress as Serena Joy, the lead soprano from Growing Souls Gospel Hour, a Sunday-morning religious program that aired when Offred was a child. Analysis: Chapters 1–5 The Handmaid’s Tale plunges immediately into an unfamiliar, unexplained world, using unfamiliar terms like â€Å"Handmaid,† â€Å"Angel,† and â€Å"Commander† that only come to make sense as the story progresses. Offred gradually delivers information about her past and the world in which she lives, often narrating through flashbacks. She narrates these flashbacks in the past tense, which distinguishes them from the main body of the story, which she tells in the present tense. The first scene, in the gymnasium, is a flashback, as are Offred’s memories of the Marthas’ gossip and her first meeting with the Commander’s Wife. Although at this point we do not know what the gymnasium signifies, or why the narrator and other women lived there, we do gather some information from the brief first chapter. The women in the gymnasium live under the constant surveillance of the Angels and the Aunts, and they cannot interact with one another. They seem to inhabit a kind of prison. Offred likens the gym to a palimpsest, a parchment either erased and written on again or layered with multiple writings. In the gym palimpsest, Offred sees multiple layers of history: high school girls going to basketball games and dances wearing miniskirts, then pants, then green hair. Likening the gym to a palimpsest also suggests that the society Offred now inhabits has been superimposed on a previous society, and traces of the old linger beneath the new. In Chapter 2, Offred sits in a room that seems at first like a pleasant change from harsh atmosphere of the gymnasium. However, her description of her room demonstrates that the same rigid, controlling structures that ruled the gym continue to constrict her in this house. The room is like a prison in which all means of defense, or escape by suicide or flight, have been removed. She wonders if women everywhere get issued exactly the same sheets and curtains, which underlines the idea that the room is like a government-ordered prison. We do not know yet what purpose Offred serves in the house, although it seems to be sexual—Cora comments that she could have done Offred’s work if she hadn’t gotten her tubes tied, which implies that Offred’s function is reproductive. Serena Joy’s coldness to Offred makes it plain that she considers Offred a threat, or at least an annoyance. We do know from Offred’s name that she, like all Handmaids, is considered state property. Handmaids’ names simply reflect which Commander owns them. â€Å"Of Fred,† â€Å"Of Warren,† and â€Å"Of Glen† get collapsed into â€Å"Offred,† â€Å"Ofwarren,† and â€Å"Ofglen. † The names make more sense when preceded by the word â€Å"Property†: â€Å"Property Offred,† for example. Thus, every time the women hear their names, they are reminded that they are no more than property. These early chapters establish the novel’s style, which is characterized by considerable physical description. The narrator devotes attention to the features of the gym, the Commander’s house, and Serena Joy’s pinched face. Offred tells the story in nonlinear fashion, following the temporal leaps of her own mind. The narrative goes where her thoughts take it—one moment to the present, in the Commander’s house, and the next back in the gymnasium, or in the old world, the United States as it exists in Offred’s memory. We do not have the sense, as in some first-person narratives, that Offred is composing this story from a distanced vantage point, reflecting back on her past. Rather, all of her thoughts have a quality of immediacy. We are there with Offred as she goes about her daily life, and as she slips out of the present and thinks about her past. Chapters 4–6 Summary: Chapter 4 As she leaves the house to go shopping, Offred notices Nick, a Guardian of the Faith, washing the Commander’s car. Nick lives above the garage. He winks at Offred—an offense against -decorum— but she ignores him, fearing that he may be an Eye, a spy assigned to test her. She waits at the corner for Ofglen, another Handmaid with whom Offred will do her shopping. The Handmaids always travel in pairs when outside. Ofglen arrives, and they exchange greetings, careful not to say anything that isn’t strictly orthodox. Ofglen says that she has heard the war is going well, and that the army recently defeated a group of Baptist rebels. â€Å"Praise be,† Offred responds. They reach a checkpoint manned by two young Guardians. The Guardians serve as a routine police force and do menial labor. They are men too young, too old, or just generally unfit for the army. Young Guardians, such as these, can be dangerous because they are frequently more fanatical or nervous than older guards. These young Guardians recently shot a Martha as she fumbled for her pass, because they thought she was a man in disguise carrying a bomb. Offred heard Rita and Cora talking about the shooting. Rita was angry, but Cora seemed to accept the shooting as the price one pays for safety. At the checkpoint, Offred subtly flirts with one of the Guardians by making eye contact, cherishing this small infraction against the rules. She considers how sex-starved the young men must be, since they cannot marry without permission, masturbation is a sin, and pornographic magazines and films are now forbidden. The Guardians can only hope to become Angels, when they will be allowed to take a wife and perhaps eventually get a Handmaid. This marks the first time in the novel we hear the word â€Å"Handmaid† used. Summary: Chapter 5 In town, Ofglen and Offred wait in line at the shops. We learn the name of this new society: â€Å"The Republic of Gilead. † Offred remembers the pre-Gilead days, when women were not protected: they had to keep their doors closed to strangers and ignore catcalls on the street. Now no one whistles at women as they walk; no one touches them or talks to them. She remembers Aunt Lydia explaining that more than one kind of freedom exists, and that â€Å"[i]n the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. † The women shop at stores known by names like All Flesh and Milk and Honey. Pictures of meat or fruit mark the stores, rather than lettered signs, because â€Å"they decided that even the names of shops were too much temptation for us. † A Handmaid in the late stages of pregnancy enters the store and raises a flurry of excitement. Offred recognizes her from the Red Center. She used to be known as Janine, and she was one of Aunt Lydia’s favorites. Now her name is Ofwarren. Offred senses that Janine went shopping just so she could show off her pregnancy. Offred thinks of her husband, Luke, and their daughter, and the life they led before Gilead existed. She remembers a prosaic detail from their everyday life together: she used to store plastic shopping bags under the sink, which annoyed Luke, who worried that their daughter would get one of the bags caught over her head. She remembers feeling guilty for her carelessness. Offred and Ofglen finish their shopping and go out to the sidewalk, where they encounter a group of Japanese tourists and their interpreter. The tourists want to take a photograph, but Offred says no. Many of the interpreters are Eyes, and Handmaids must not appear immodest. Offred and Ofglen marvel at the women’s exposed legs, high heels, and polished toenails. The tourists ask if they are happy, and since Ofglen does not answer, Offred replies that they are very happy. Summary: Chapter 6 This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary. (See Important Quotations Explained) As they return from shopping, Ofglen suggests they take the long way and pass by the church. It is an old building, decorated inside with paintings of what seem to be Puritans from the colonial era. Now the former church is kept as a museum. Offred describes a nearby boathouse, old dormitories, a football stadium, and redbrick sidewalks. Atwood implies that Offred is walking across what used to be the campus of Harvard University. Across the street from the church sits the Wall, where the authorities hang the bodies of executed criminals as examples to the rest of the Republic of Gilead. The authorities cover the men’s heads with bags. One of the bags looks painted with a red smile where the blood has seeped through. All of the six corpses wear signs around their necks picturing fetuses, signaling that they were executed for performing abortions before Gilead came into existence. Although their actions were legal at the time, their crimes are being punished retroactively. Offred feels relieved that none of the bodies could be Luke’s, since he was not a doctor. As she stares at the bodies, Offred thinks of Aunt Lydia telling them that soon their new life would seem ordinary. Analysis: Chapters 4–6 The theocratic nature of Offred’s society, the name of which we learn for the first time in these chapters, becomes clear during her shopping trip. A theocracy exists when there is no separation between church and state, and a single religion dominates all aspects of life. In Gilead, state and religion are inseparable. The official language of Gilead uses many biblical terms, from the various ranks that men hold (Angels, Guardians of the Faith, Commanders of the Faith, the Eyes of God), to the stores where Offred and Ofglen shop (Milk and Honey, All Flesh, Loaves and Fishes), to the names of automobiles (Behemoth, Whirlwind, Chariot). The very name â€Å"Gilead† refers to a location in ancient Israel. The name also recalls a line from the Book of Psalms: â€Å"there is a balm in Gilead. This phrase, we realize later, has been transformed into a kind of national motto. Atwood does not describe the exact details of Gilead’s state religion. In Chapter 2, Offred describes her room as â€Å"a return to traditional values. † The religious right in America uses the phrase â€Å"traditional values,† so Atwoo d seems to link the values of this dystopic society to the values of the Protestant Christian religious right in America. Gilead seems more Protestant than anything else, but its brand of Christianity pays far more attention to the Old Testament than the New Testament. The religious justification for having Handmaids, for instance, is taken from the Book of Genesis. We learn that neither Catholics nor Jews are welcome in Gilead. The former must convert, while the latter must emigrate to Israel or renounce their Judaism. Atwood seems less interested in religion than in the intersection between religion, politics, and sex. The Handmaid’s Tale explores the political oppression of women, carried out in the name of God but in large part motivated by a desire to control women’s bodies. Gilead sees women’s sexuality as dangerous: women must cover themselves from head to toe, for example, and not reveal their sexual attractions. When Offred attracts the Guardians, she feels this ability to inspire sexual attraction is the only power she retains. Every other privilege is stripped away, down to the very act of reading, which is forbidden. Women are not even allowed to read store signs. By controlling women’s minds, by not allowing them to read, the authorities more easily control women’s bodies. The patriarchs of Gilead want to control women’s bodies, their sex lives, and their reproductive rights. The bodies of slain abortionists on the Wall hammer home the point: feminists believe that women must have abortion rights in order to control their own bodies, and in Gilead, giving women control of their bodies is a horrifying crime. When Offred and Ofglen go to town to shop, geographical clues and street names suggest that they live in what was once Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that their walk takes them near what used to be the campus of Harvard University. The choice of Cambridge for the setting of The Handmaid’s Tale is significant, since Massachusetts was a Puritan stronghold during the colonial period of the United States. The Puritans were a persecuted minority in England, but when they fled to New England, they re-created the repression they suffered at home, this time casting themselves as the repressors rather than the repressed. They established an intolerant religious society in some ways similar to Gilead. Atwood locates her fictional intolerant society in a place founded by intolerant people. By turning the old church into a museum, and leaving untouched portraits of Puritan forebears, the founders of Gilead suggest their admiration for the old Puritan society. Chapters 7–9 Summary: Chapter 7 I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. (See Important Quotations Explained) At night, Offred likes to remember her former life. She recalls talking to her college friend, Moira, in her dorm room. She remembers being a child and going to a park with her mother, where they saw a group of women and a few men burning pornographic magazines. Offred has forgotten a large chunk of time, which she thinks might be the fault of an injection or pill the authorities gave her. She remembers waking up somewhere and screaming, demanding to know what they had done with her daughter. The authorities told Offred she was unfit, and her daughter was with those fit to care for her. They showed her a photograph of her child wearing a white dress, holding the hand of a strange woman. As she recounts these events, Offred imagines she is telling her story to someone, telling things that she cannot write down, because writing is forbidden. Summary: Chapter 8 Returning from another shopping trip, Ofglen and Offred notice three new bodies on the Wall. One is a Catholic priest and two are Guardians who bear placards around their necks that read â€Å"Gender Treachery. † This means they were hanged for committing homosexual acts. After looking at the bodies for a while, Offred tells Ofglen that they should continue walking home. They meet a funeral procession of Econowives, the wives of poorer men. One Econowife carries a small black jar. From the size of the jar, Offred can tell that it contains a dead embryo from an early miscarriage—one that came too early to know whether it was an â€Å"Unbaby. † The Econowives do not like the Handmaids. One woman scowls, and another spits at the Handmaids as they pass. At the corner near the Commander’s home, Ofglen says â€Å"Under His Eye,† the orthodox good-bye, hesitating as if she wants to say more but then continuing on her way. When Offred reaches the Commander’s driveway she passes Nick, who breaks the rules by asking her about her walk. She says nothing and goes into the house. She sees Serena Joy out in the garden and recalls how after Serena’s singing career ended, she became a spokesperson for respecting the â€Å"sanctity of the home† and for women staying at home instead of working. Serena herself never stayed at home, because she was always out giving speeches. Once, Offred remembers, someone tried to assassinate Serena but killed her secretary instead. Offred wonders if Serena is angry that she can no longer be a public figure, now that what she advocated has come to pass and all women, including her, are confined to the home. In the kitchen, Rita fusses over the quality of the purchases as she always does. Offred retreats upstairs and notices the Commander standing outside her room. He is not supposed to be there. He nods at her and retreats. Summary: Chapter 9 Offred remembers renting hotel rooms and waiting for Luke to meet her, before they were married, when he was cheating on his first wife. She regrets that she did not fully appreciate the freedom to have her own space when she wanted it. Thinking of the problems she and Luke thought they had, she realizes they were truly happy, although they did not know it. She remembers examining her room in the Commander’s house little by little after she first arrived. She saw stains on the mattress, left over from long-ago sex, and she discovered a Latin phrase freshly scratched into the floor of the closet: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Offred does not understand Latin. It pleases her to imagine that this message allows her to commune with the woman who wrote it. She pictures this woman as freckly and irreverent, someone like Moira. Later, she asks Rita who stayed in her room before her. Rita tells her to specify which one, implying that there were a number of Handmaids before her. Offred says, guessing, â€Å"[t]he lively one . . . with freckles. † Rita asks how Offred knew about her, but she refuses to tell Offred anything about the previous Handmaid beyond a vague statement that she did not work out. Analysis: Chapter 7–9 Atwood suggests that those who seek to restrict sexual expression, whether they are feminists or religious conservatives, ultimately share the same goal—the control of sexuality, particularly women’s sexuality. In the flashback to the scene from Offred’s childhood in which women burn pornographic magazines, Atwood shows the similarity between the extremism of the left and the extremism of the right. The people burning magazines are feminists, not religious conservatives like the leaders of Gilead, yet their goal is the same: to crack down on certain kinds of sexual freedom. In other words, the desire for control over sexuality is not unique to the religious totalitarians of Gilead; it also existed in the feminist anti-pornography crusades that preceded the fall of the United States. Gilead actually appropriates some of the rhetoric of women’s liberation in its attempt to control women. Gilead also uses the Aunts and the Aunts’ rhetoric, forcing women to control other women. Again and again in the novel, the voice of Aunt Lydia rings in Offred’s head, insisting that women are better off in Gilead, free from exploitation and violence, than they were in the dangerous freedom of pre-Gilead times. In Chapter 7, Offred relates some of the details of how she lost her child. This loss is the central wound on Offred’s psyche throughout the novel, and the novel’s great source of emotional power. The loss of her child is so painful to Offred that she can only relate the story in fits and starts; so far the details of what happened have been murky. When telling stories from her past, like the story of her daughter’s disappearance, Offred often seems to draw on a partial or foggy memory. It almost seems as if she is remembering details from hundreds of years ago, when we know these things happened a few years before the narrative. Partly this distance is the product of emotional trauma—thinking of the past is painful for Offred. But in Chapter 7, Offred offers her own explanation for these gaps: she thinks it possible that the authorities gave her a pill or injection that harmed her memory. Immediately after remembering her daughter, Offred addresses someone she calls â€Å"you. † She could be talking to God, Luke, or an imaginary future reader. â€Å"I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling,† Offred says. â€Å"Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance . . A story is a letter. Dear You, I’ll say. † In the act of telling her imagined audience about her life, Offred reduces her life’s horror and makes its oppressive weight endurable. Also, if she can think of her life as a story and herself as the writer, she can think of her life as controllable, fictional, something not terrifying because not real. We learn in Chap ter 8 that Serena used to campaign against women’s rights. This makes her a figure worthy of pity, in a way; she supported the anti-woman principles on which Gilead was founded, but once they were mplemented, she found that they affected her as well as other women. She now lives deprived of freedom and saddled with a Handmaid who has sex with her husband. Yet Serena forfeits what pity we might feel for her by her callous, petty behavior toward Offred. Powerless in the world of men, Serena can only take out her frustration on the women under her thumb by making their lives miserable. In many ways, she treats Offred far worse than the Commander does, which suggests that Gilead’s oppressive power structure succeeds not just because men created it, but because women like Serena sustain it. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum—the Latin phrase scrawled in Offred’s closet by a previous Handmaid—takes on a magical importance for Offred even before she knows what it means. It symbolizes her inner resistance to Gilead’s tyranny and makes her feel like she can communicate with other strong women, like the woman who wrote the message. In Chapter 29 we learn what the phrase means, and its role in sustaining Offred’s resistance comes to seem perfectly appropriate. Chapters 10–12 Summary: Chapter 10 Offred often sings songs in her head—â€Å"Amazing Grace† or songs by Elvis. Most music is forbidden in Gilead, and there is little of it in the Commander’s home. Sometimes she hears Serena humming and listening to a recording of herself from the time when she was a famous gospel singer. Summer is approaching, and the house grows hot. Soon the Handmaids will be allowed to wear their summer dresses. Offred thinks about how Aunt Lydia would describe the terrible things that used to happen to women in the old days, before Gilead, when they sunbathed wearing next to nothing. Offred remembers Moira throwing an â€Å"underwhore† party to sell sexy lingerie. She remembers reading stories in the papers about women who were murdered and raped, but even in the old days it seemed distant from her life and unrelated to her. Offred sits at the window, beside a cushion embroidered with the word Faith. It is the only word they have given her to read, and she spends many minutes looking at it. From her window, she watches the Commander get into his car and drive away. Summary: Chapter 11 Offred says that yesterday she went to the doctor. Every month, a Guardian accompanies Offred to a doctor, who tests her for pregnancy and disease. At the doctor’s office, Offred undresses, pulling a sheet over her body. A sheet hangs down from the ceiling, cutting off the doctor’s view of her face. The doctor is not supposed to see her face or speak to her if he can help it. On this visit, though, he chatters cheerfully and then offers to help her. He says many of the Commanders are either too old to produce a child or are sterile, and he suggests that he could have sex with her and impregnate her. His use of the word â€Å"sterile† shocks Offred, for officially sterile men no longer exist. In Gilead, there are only fruitful women and barren women. Offred thinks him genuinely sympathetic to her plight, but she also realizes he enjoys his own empathy and his position of power. After a moment, she declines, saying it is too dangerous. If they are caught, they will both receive the death penalty. She tries to sound casual and grateful as she refuses, but she feels frightened. To revenge her refusal, the doctor could falsely report that she has a health problem, and then she would be sent to the Colonies with the â€Å"Unwomen. † Offred also feels frightened, she realizes, because she has been given a way out. Summary: Chapter 12 It is one of Offred’s required bath days. The bathroom has no mirror, no razors, and no lock on the door. Cora sits outside, waiting for Offred. Offred’s own naked body seems strange to her, and she finds it hard to believe that she once wore bathing suits, letting people see her thighs and arms, her breasts and buttocks. Lying in the bath, she thinks of her daughter and remembers the time when a crazy woman tried to kidnap the little girl in the supermarket. The authorities in Gilead took Offred’s then-five-year-old child from her, and three years have passed since then. Offred has no mementos of her daughter. She remember

Health Promotion Campaign on Alcohol Consumption in the United Kingdom Essay

Health Promotion Campaign on Alcohol Consumption in the United Kingdom - Essay Example What is hoped is that by bringing better awareness about the affects of alcohol, it will demystify the false ideas that are associated with drinking, specifically with young people who later can turn to alcoholics without intervention. The main point of fact that this research plans to develop and discuss is how beneficial the program actual is in the country. The central discussion is focused on approaches that draw in an entire community in order to prevent binge drinking turning into the disease of alcoholism. Some issues that are centered in this research are relative to underage drinking; prevention strategies, school-based prevention for the youth, curriculum related programs, prevention through alternative activities, skills building, family focused prevention, alcohol or other drug (AOD) public policy strategies, the minimum drinking age requirements, the availability or accessibility to minors, and as was stated, community-based prevention. The conclusion of the research will testify that as long as there are programs that can offer support and services to assist people with problems related to alcohol or other addictive behaviors then there is hope to improve upon life and bring back a decent quality of life for people suffering with addictions such as this. The Health Promotion Campaign came into existence to try and minimize the ongoing problems associated with alcoholism and binge drinking among adults as well as the youth population within the United Kingdom. One of the central themes of the campaign since its origination has been to demonstrate an understanding in society that clearly shows in order to help people and ones self there has to first be acknowledgement of why there is an alcohol problem to begin with. Also, in order to bring about positive health changes within a society there has to exist an acceptance from those with an alcohol problem that they do have an adverse situation associated with alcohol they are dealing with. In order to be truly effective there has to be a rationale for alcoholism and binge drinking occurring. If the problem isn't known, then the program can never be totally effective. What is Alcoholism and Binge Drinking Alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. This disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by continuous or periodic: impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial (Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews 2006). The original Health Promotions campaign dealt heavily with the economic, social, and health factors of individuals at risk due to binge drinking and in fact the newer campaign has carried on this old initiatives but now with a more inclusive fashion to bring in all the adverse health and social problems that can arise due to this problem. For instance there is more awareness being given of how the effects of drinking on the major organs of the body are cumulative and are evident after continuous heavy drinking over 5 to 30 years, most notably affected are the central

Make a report of the study case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Make a report of the study case - Essay Example To evaluate and analyse this aspect of the company’s position, certain financial ratios have also been used in the report. The greatest internal risk faced by the company is the declining of profit over the last financial year, if this trends continue to take place, the company will be generating no more funds for investment and even there would be left nothing in the company to be transferred to the shareholders in the form of dividends or earnings per share. The company also confronts with the risk of losing all its business because of the costs incurred during the production and distribution of goods, and also the other operating expenses incurred during the year. According to Wells and Nieuwenhuis (2001), the automotive industry in UK has been highly saturated and the companies need to face great competition from other companies in the same industry. Hence, there is a high risk of increasing competition. Wells and Nieuwenhuis (2001) further specify that the competition is not the only risk a company has to confront with, there are certain other factors that increase the risk of doing business in UK automotive industry. These factors are globalisation, consolidation, and continuous innovations in the technology. Bordenave and Lung (1996) says that the most important risk a company faces in the automotive industry in UK is due to the increasing outsourcing activities on the part of the manufacturers. Therefore, a geographical risk arises in such a situation where supplier and manufacturer are from geographically distant and different places. Analysing the profitability of Buzzard Ltd lies in assessing the company’s profit with respect to various other items from income statement and balance sheet. This can be done with the help of the following ratios: The Gross Profit ratio analyses the company’s profit margin before accounting for various operating costs (Mcmenamin Jim,

Helping Children Master the Basic Facts Essay Example for Free

Helping Children Master the Basic Facts Essay The chapter â€Å"Strategies for Multiplication Facts† provides detailed overview of strategies used for mastering and enlarging multiplication facts. It is suggested that basic facts may be improved due to relating existing knowledge to new facts. The author outlines five group strategies stating that the first four are easier and they cover 75% of multiplication facts. Nevertheless, it is noted the offered strategies are simply suggestions, not the rules to follow. Actually, these strategies help students think of various facts easily. The special attention in the chapter is paid to doubles, zeroes and ones, helping facts, division facts and ‘near facts’, etc. It is noted that fact remediation should be used in case when students are unable to master basic facts mentioned above. Such students need new approach to comprehend basic facts. Therefore, fact remediation is of great importance, because it aims at providing hope for students having problems with mathematics. Often students experiencing difficulties with getting facts, start thinking they are unable to learn facts at all. The author recommends to â€Å"let these children know that you will help them and that you will provide some new ideas that will help them as well†. (184) It is admitted in the chapter that students who comprehend the basic multiplication facts doesn’t reason better that student who find it difficult to get the idea of basic facts. The author states that nowadays the goal of mathematics isn’t simply to learn how to count, instead it aims at learning how to reason, how to make the sense of things around. What is more important, mathematics develops the skills of critical thinking and punctuality. Mathematics teaches students to solve problems and, therefore, students experiencing difficulties with mastering basic facts shouldn’t be excluded from mathematical experiences. Summing up, the author claims that all students should be involved in â€Å"exciting and meaningful experiences, they have real motivation to learn facts and real opportunities to develop relationships that can aid in that endeavor†. (185) References Van De Walle, John. (2003). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. USA: Allyn Bacon.

The Transgenic Tomato Essay examples -- Science Genetics Papers

The Transgenic Tomato The Need for Genetic Engineering of Crops For most Americans, fresh vegetables come from the supermarket. One only has to walk down an aisle loaded with gleaming red tomatoes, juicy melons, fresh potatoes, and a plethora of other vegetables and fruits and gather whatever captures one's fancy or appetite. A person living in a Westernized culture often takes for granted the hard work, resource usage, and waste that occurs to bring food to him. Tomatoes, for example, currently follow a long and difficult route to the supermarket. To begin with, field workers must pick the tomatoes by hand while they are still green. The unripe tomatoes are then trucked to facilities where they are gassed with ethylene to artificially induce ripening (Engel 108). Treating green tomatoes with gas to make the red color appear before the tomato ripens allows them to be shipped with less bruising and spoilage because they are still hard, but this practice detracts from their flavor and makes them taste, as some like to say, like cardboard! After the tomatoes are gassed, the red (but tough) tomatoes are distributed to the supermarkets. The "cardboard" tomato problem illustrates a larger problem in agriculture - crop spoilage associated with the predations of insects and fungi and with shipping. We saw that picking fruits such as tomatoes while they are green and chemically ripening them is a solution to some of the spoilage problem in crops, while using other chemicals can prevent some damage by pests. However, these chemicals often create environmental hazards in areas where they are used, and pests can often develop resistance to chemicals used to destroy them, making the release of even more pesticides and fungicides int... ...ill form a string, and the tRNA molecules will be released into the cell. When this string of amino acids is completed, it is called a protein. Some proteins provide structure in living things (such as the protein in muscle tissue), while others can promote certain chemical reactions in cells (such as the breakdown of pectin in tomato cell walls). The above information was taken from Biology, Neil Campbell, et. al., New York: Addison Wesley, 1999, p.316. Works Cited Campbell, Neil et. al. (1999). Biology. New York: Addison Wesley Engel, Karl-Heinz et al., editors. (1995). Genetically Modified Foods: Safety Aspects, Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. Nettleton, Joyce. (1999, January). Wedging Science into Public Policy, Food Technology, p. 20. Wilson, Edward O. (1999). The Diversity of Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Has the World Treated Me Fairly or Unfairly? Essay

Everyone has a different perspective on fairness of the world, people would say that the world has been fair, unfair, or both to their lives. I stand where I believe the world has been fair to my life. Living in Saipan gave me a lot of opportunities and great moments. I received great education and got a chance to share passion with other good people. Everyone gets a chance to enjoy their lives, and I think that so far I have gotten that chance. I can say I had lucky breaks. I got to travel the world with the people who share a common passion and interest with me. Looking back, I received all that I could but sometimes I regret not taking the given opportunities which could have left a different impact in my life. Unlike the mainland, we do not have much facility, resources and a great economy. Despite of lacking needs, I received great education from great educating minds. It was my fortune to enroll in a school that provided musical education, a school concert band program. Even in a bad economy, our high school band (which I was in) got invited to the New York Music Festival and got a chance to play on the world’s most prestigious stage of Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, because of band I had to give up my chance to take AP classes due to conflict in class schedule. I had to think it over twice by giving up something I love for another great opportunity, or keep this opportunity that was given to me and start fresh. I know it was a given chance for me, but then I chose band because by that time, band has become a big part of my life. Through my dedications in music I was able to enjoy doing what I love with my friends and family, traveling to places like New York, Guam, and London. If this was not my luck break, I don’t know what is. During my last year in high school I joined the â€Å"We the People† team which was a class/club that was formed to compete in the â€Å"We the people national competition†. I wasn’t even interested in this class because I know that I am not a great public speaker, nor even interested in the law. As time passed, I got more interested in my subject and tried harder every day. I interacted more with my teammates and learned to be a better public speaker. As by default, we won the finals in the CNMI and what great news, we got to go to the national finals that will be held at Washington D.C. It felt like it was worth the time I had put into this program, and my team. This was a chance for me to improve myself in many ways. I got a unique education from a Supreme Court judges and law clerks, not everyone gets a chance to even enter the Supreme Court. This was a precious chance for me to prove myself to the world and show the people what I got. Everyone can be lucky. If there is an opportunity, don’t miss it. Take those opportunities when they are given to you even if you have to give something up, there is always going to be another opportunity waiting for you. You can make yourself a lucky person if you try hard. When there’s something that you want, go strive for it and achieve it. Don’t be afraid to see what’s there waiting for you ahead. As it came to the end of my senior year, everything felt like as if thing were moving in life speed. 4 years has gone by so fast! When I look back into it, I pretty much had a great high school life. My parents are great people, I have great friends, just thinking about being here gave me so many opportunities, or should I say I am a lucky person? Living in Saipan, I received great education and got a chance to share passion with other good people. Everyone gets a chance to enjoy their lives, and I think that so far I have gotten that chance. I can say I had lucky breaks.

Braving paths towards learner authonomy

Article Braving paths towards learner autonomy: make the most of your FEEL lessons! Lenore Gauchely Queerer Hartmann Autonomy is understood by many as the ability to take charge of one's own learning (HOLE, 1981). According to this definition, the autonomous learner is the one who is able to take control of and be responsible for his/her learning. This includes decommissioning: when, what, and how to learn as well as how, when, and by whom to be assessed.Developing this ability is not only a matter of personality, but also a tater of the sort of education and upbringing one has had. Working with autonomy in language teaching entails dealing with a number of constraints: pre-determined syllabus, students used to teacher- centered modes of teaching that value grades to the detriment of their learning, homework done because of marks, different levels of motivation, different learning styles, as well as different degrees of autonomy.Furthermore, the difficulties one may encounter in meas uring these degrees of autonomy must be oaken into account: students may feel like' being more autonomous on a given day rather than on another due to reasons which may not always be identifiable. Nevertheless, it is part of a teacher's Job to expose students to a variety of ways of becoming (more) autonomous, to help them discover how they learn best and how they can cope with situations which may be inevitable yet not to their liking. What sort of autonomy can be developed in FEEL classrooms?This question can only be answered if we go beyond the lassoer settings. Learning is part of life and those who are ready to learn in all situations will certainly always be one step ahead. Some students have an innate capacity for learning; some need stimulus and/or guidance to get started. Students should be aware of what they can do for their own learning, and how they can do it. The teacher's main concern is how to do that. Our responsibility towards students is so enormous that becoming a ware of this fact is of great importance. Helping Braving paths towards learner authonomy Article Braving paths towards learner autonomy: make the most of your FEEL lessons! Lenore Gauchely Queries Hartmann Autonomy is understood by many as the ability to take charge of one's own learning (HOLE, 1981). According to this definition, the autonomous learner is the one who is able to take control of and be responsible for his/her learning. This includes decommissioning: when, what, and how to learn as well as how, when, and by whom to be assessed.Developing this ability is not only a matter of personality, but also a tater of the sort of education and upbringing one has had. Working with autonomy in language teaching entails dealing with a number of constraints: pre-determined syllabus, students used to teacher- centered modes of teaching that value grades to the detriment of their learning, homework done because of marks, different levels of motivation, different learning styles, as well as different degrees of autonomy.Furthermore, the difficulties one may encounter in meas uring these degrees of autonomy must be oaken into account: students may feel like' being more autonomous on a given day rather than on another due to reasons which may not always be identifiable. Nevertheless, it is part of a teacher's Job to expose students to a variety of ways of becoming (more) autonomous, to help them discover how they learn best and how they can cope with situations which may be inevitable yet not to their liking. What sort of autonomy can be developed in FEEL classrooms?This question can only be answered if we go beyond the lassoer settings. Learning is part of life and those who are ready to learn in all situations will certainly always be one step ahead. Some students have an innate capacity for learning; some need stimulus and/or guidance to get started. Students should be aware of what they can do for their own learning, and how they can do it. The teacher's main concern is how to do that. Our responsibility towards students is so enormous that becoming a ware of this fact is of great importance.

Contrast of Modern Othello to Shakesperian Othello Essay Example

Contrast of Modern Othello to Shakesperian Othello Essay Example Contrast of Modern Othello to Shakesperian Othello Paper Contrast of Modern Othello to Shakesperian Othello Paper are now making the beasts with two backs† which allows the audience to refer to him as a devil character by directly associating Othello with animalistic qualities. Creating the imagery of Othello acquiring beast like qualities alludes to the prospect of his character enabling such savage qualities as the extremities of abduction and rape. The animalistic qualities are metaphorical for his race by means of a savage Moor. References to animals is evident throughout the play not only when referring to Othello himself, this represents a sense of the laws of nature rather than the laws of society which primarily govern the characters in the play. As the audience is properly introduced to the Moore, the image becomes clear in Othello’s nature of speech that he does not inherit any of the stereotypical characteristics of evil qualities depicted by Iago. In act 1 scene 3 through the use of figurative language the Duke declares quietly to Barbantio â€Å"Your son-in-law is far more fair than black†, this metaphor symbolises the way in which Othello inherits qualities of a white man’s honesty by the dramatic contrast between colours. This is an ironic representation of forshadowing as in the end of the play Othello becomes savage and monstrous as he is consumed by jealousy which contradicts the essence of his fair qualities. Later in the play when Othello starts to undermine Desdemona and his relationship by means of the manipulation tactics of Iago, he draws direct attention to his race â€Å"haply for I am black, and have not those soft parts of conversation that chambers have; or for I am declined into the vale of years – yet that’s not much – she’s gone† This is the first circumstance in which Othello himself has brought direct negative attention to his race, which demonstrates his lacking of confidence in which he so happily acquired at the beginning of the play. Comparing Shakespeare’s Othello to Jeoffery Sax’s film Othello it is obvious the importance of race is far less significant in Elizabethan times, which suggests race has become more of an issue in contemporary times. In Jeoffery Sax’s film Othello the significance of race plays a much more significant role as it seems to create tension within every situation throughout the film. This importance of race is so strong throughout the film and this is evident in the opening silouqy where a close up of a dark male hand is resting over a light female hand. This contrast between the pigments of skin types introduces the recurring theme of inequality within race in modern day society and the role the dark male hand plays within the relationship. Following the opening sililougy the audience is confronted with fast, handheld and diagetic shots of race riots. These shots are highly a contrasted juxtaposition with upper class white society in which the shots are slower and smoother. This suggests further inequality but through creating an image of the black race acting out in the negative sense as savage and uncontrollable. This is similar to the audiences first introduction to the Moore, in which Rodrigo and Iago are referring to him as savage and monstrous. The consistent presence of water within the film acts a recurring symbol or motif in which it represents the yin and yang, meaning opposites as black and white as water is the opposite to fire. This further suggests the consistent battle between black and white men and women in modern society. This relates to values and representations of race from both parties. If I could find any of them with their brains as big as their dicks† suggests the derogatory stereotypical views of black men from a white mans point of view. It symbolises the power of intellect in which the white men claim to have successfully achieved. This statement is highly ironic for during this time in the film John Othello is the only police officer who is using his ‘brain’ and attending to the issues of the street riots in which no other police officer has taken any initiative in resolving. This contradicts this statement through the actions of John Othello being a black police officer. As this statement is announced during a conversation in involving Jago it is interesting as later on in the film Jago declares to John â€Å"You cleaver big black bustard† which is suggesting John as gaining intellect or having a bigger ‘brain’ and therefore being of higher significance and importance. Following this Jago uses direct speech to the audience in which he displays a neurotic fit in which he describes John as a â€Å"patronising ape† the use of animalistic representation is portrayed similar to that of Shakespeare’s version in which it associates John’s race with the actions and qualities of animals through this extended metaphor. John Othello’s approach to the inequality between black and white men and women is suggested from a far less powerful stance in which he suggests his lack of power through his past desire to be white â€Å"Your people brought my people here to work as slaves†¦.. I wanted to be like you, wanted to be white†, this suggests his reclining stance in his pride of his race as he is slowly being extracted of his power. The direct accusation suggests the change in his character to primarily fit the stereotypical characteristics of a black man. This is similar to Shakespeare’s Othello in the evidence of jealousy turning Othello into the savage Moore he so longingly resented. The themes of race and women are strongly displayed in both accounts which suggest the inability of change over time between such different societies; however there are situations which within these themes that suggest a change in attitudes through the extent and position in which these themes are portrayed. The difference in the significance of race from Shakespearian times to modern times reflects the changes in society and how individuals relate to one another through appearance versus reality. The changes in attitudes to women have also changed significantly through the acceptance of women as human beings, enabling them to run their own lives and make their own decisions, the power for women in modern day society has developed so evidently. These as well as the similarities in times are magnificently demonstrated in both accounts.